Joe Scarborough to Nate Silver: “I’m sorry”

Joe Scarborough — who called the 2012 election a “dead heat” on Twitter and mocked anyone who would predict how it would turn out — has apologized to the man who correctly called every state for the second presidential race in a row.

In a column on Politico this morning, the “Morning Joe” co-host told Nate Silver he was sorry for doubting the methodology Silver uses on his fivethirtyeight blog.

“I do need to tell Nate I’m sorry for leaning in too hard and lumping him with pollsters whose methodology is as rigorous as the Simpsons’ strip mall physician, Dr. Nick. For those sins (and a multitude of others that I’m sure I don’t even know about), I am sorry,” Scarborough wrote.

He added:

Politics is a messy sport. And just as ball players who drink beer and eat fried chicken in dugouts across America can screw up the smartest sabermatrician’s forecast, Nate Silver’s formula is sure to let his fervent admirers down from time to time. But judging from what I saw of him this morning, Nate is a grounded guy who admits as much in his book. I was too tough on him and there’s a 84.398264% chance I will be less dismissive of his good work in the future.

9. ok

11. He could've done what other Republicans do when they're wrong,

and that is . . . say nothing, move on, and pretend they never said such a thing.

This makes Joe Scarborough bigger than any Republican (aside from Steve Schmidt and maybe Mike Murphy) in the public eye, although I'm still waiting for him to apologize for fighting to give Florida's electoral votes to Duhbya, as part of the Republican legislature, even while the Democrats begged him not to go through with it.

17. He could have

acted like McCain on Benghazi or every republican everywhere on WMD. He didn't. Good for him. Don't like the guy at all but as far as humility goes this is the best I've seen in years (which isn't saying much).

13. Take That Luke-Warm Apology And Shove It, Joe. (nt)

14. It's great to be free and creative and to believe in your principles, but Joe Scarborough

takes all those traits to the extreme. Such an extreme that he is overly impulsive. He speaks before he thinks. He insults. And his insults are too often mean spirited. As if that were not problematic enough, Joe Scarborough is too confident that he is right and a male chauvinist to boot.

He seems to think that he is entitled to be forgiven and loved in spite of the fact that he treats so many of his guests and their ideas with utter contempt.

Needs to take himself down a notch or two in my opinion.

His technique is to insult, hurt and denigrate and then apologize in a phony, remorseful way only to come back and insult, hurt and denigrate again. And then, when he belatedly apologizes, he seems to think that the victim of his insults is supposed to feel guilty.

Joe Scarborough (and Bill O'Reilly and other TV personalities of this type) needs to get his emotions under control because his neurotic way of intimidating his guests and anyone who thinks differently than he does is part of the neurosis that is dividing the country. I would like to see a Joe Scarborough who listens to everyone in a respectful way, pauses to control his tongue before he lashes out in his temperamental way and silences others with his contempt.

I like an interviewer who is there, as I am, to learn what another person has to say, to get new ideas and learn new facts. Joe Scarborough does not appear to be that kind of interviewer.

15. I don't know how anyone could look at his 2008 prediction and fault him in 2012

Nate Silver came within approx 4 EV in 2008 and got every single senate race. I felt very comfortable believing what Nate wrote on his blog. Currently he doesn't think Democrats will retake the House in 2014. I just hope the 2 years indicates he is wrong but regardless, I will believe what he predicts.

23. he gets points for "as rigorous a poll as dr. nick."

24. The linked article overstates Silver's accuracy.

He has not "correctly called every state for the second presidential race in a row." In 2008 he got Indiana wrong -- as, to be fair, did just about everyone else. (I still don't know how we won Indiana in 2008. It was solidly red in 2004 and 2012.)

As for the debate in this thread about Scarborough, I side with those giving him at least some credit for acknowledging his error. I would have assigned a probability of 84.398264% that he would simply never mention the subject.

28. I'm sorry I said there was no way that a blind squirrel could find a nut.

29. Scar-Man is dumber than a tree

The other day he said, on his show, in front of the entire nation, that this is the first time in history that the anniversary of JFK's assassination landed on Thanksgiving Day! Apparently unaware of how a calendar works, he did not back down as Mika tried to suggest that there must've been other years where this was also the case.

44. Mika needs to get a freaking backbone, as far as I can tell. She just lets JoScar go on and on while

she sits there staring and posing and rocking like a...well, I can't think of anything that won't be offensive. But she appears to be on drugs or something. I'm not sure exactly what, but something is not right.

I don't know what her political leanings are, but if she's there as the liberal counterpart to Joe, she's a poor choice. But whatever she is, I wish she'd speak up.

Admittedly, JoJo Scarbucks is too annoying for me to have watched more than about 20 hours of the show, ever, so I could be misjudging little miss Mika.

53. Indeed--that's part of why I "limit my exposure!"

You're kinda stuck with 'em during the heat of the campaign season, but in the post-election haze, I can avoid them and I do!

I won't forget that bullshit "horse race" crap they tried to sell us, or the few fools insisting that Money BooBoo would win in a "landslide" with the percentage that Obama, at the end of the day, took.

Of course, when that very same percentage went to Obama, they claimed that he "squeaked by."

Maddening! Totally "racist maddening" in many cases, and "ideologically blind-maddening" in the rest of 'em!

54. I'm glad I don't have TV or cable for that matter.

I watch what I want to watch and generally my news comes from here or places like Nate Silver.

I don't even watch downloads of Maddow or Bill Maher because they feed into the narrative, too (if only by responding to it). I might check out The Daily Show occasionally for the lulz, but other than that, fuck it, I am not letting them get into my head.

Exactly what was his proclamation regarding the recent POTUS race being "very close" based on? The larger point here is there were dozens, if not hundreds of bobbleheads in MSM doing exactly what Joe did: falsely HYPE this election as "very close" when in fact it was NEVER close.

99% of the polling work done by old school pollsters was more or less worthless. Most of what was broadcast by Joe and the other bobbleheads was more or less worthless-- that's why years ago I stopped wasting my time watching these shows.

57. Joe is about as bright as my old pair of boots.

There isn't a lot of IQ nor common sense in this clown's head. Just forgive him and let him think he is "somebody".

Watching his shoe just reminds me of how simple minded a large portion of America really are. Simple solutions are always best to bloviate. Makes no difference how ridiculous. This pathetic host is what is left of the once proud GOP...except there really wasn't anything so "proud" about them either. The best thing they have going is claiming they convinced Dwight D. Eisenhower to run as a republican. I can't think of anything else....can you???

61. Joey has made an occasional mea culpa

But it's obvious he has to strain really hard to apologize,
AND, of course, it's in the typical left-handed repub way.

Not only does he have a daily show on MSNBC, but it's
also TWO HOURS long. Jeeeeesh. I suggest that you
watch Current TV if you can. I can't stand his show.

I've caught Mika (his lapdog) giving him the hairy eyeball
now and then, which is refreshing. I can only stomach
about 10 minutes, though.
I watched her father skewer him on his own show --
it was awesome, as I recall. Joey responded like the true
wounded narcissist, too.

Nate has been correct every time. Joey can't stand the
notion that someone is smarter than he is. So, using
his powers of clairvoyance, he let Nate know that he will
be wrong... in the future...someday....so there!